Past Tense

What is preteritum?

The Swedish past tense is called preteritum (preterite in English). It is used for actions, events, and states in the past, especially when the time is known or when you are telling a story.

Jag jobbade igår.(I worked yesterday.)

Vi var i Göteborg förra helgen.(We were in Gothenburg last weekend.)

Hon spelade hockey när hon var liten.(She played hockey when she was little.)

In English, this often corresponds to the simple past with forms like worked, played, lived, or was.

Swedish verbs are divided in five conjugation group that form the past tense in different ways:

jobba → jobbade

läsa → läste

bo → bodde

skriva → skrev (strong conjugation)

vilja → ville (irregular/half weak conjugation)